Tide Pool Memories

I was born in Arizona a long, long time ago, but before I reached an age to start school we moved to Silicon Valley. That move put the family about an hour's drive from the beach.  We didn't go often, but we did go.  But we didn't go "tide pooling."

Tide pools are the small pockets of sea water that are left behind amongst the rocks when the tide goes out.  These pools are chock-full of sea creatures, most notably starfish, sea urchins, sea anemones, barnacles, periwinkles, and mussels, but there are plenty of others.  But, you may have noticed the word "rocks." This is not what most people think of when they say, "Let's go to the beach today!"

When I was in high school I took a course in Oceanography.  One of the activities in this course was the occasional trip to the tide pools along the Santa Cruz coast.  Wow! It was simply amazing!

The thing is that tide pooling has a big danger potential. If you are focused on some creature down near the waterline, you are unlikely to notice that rogue wave coming in to thrash you onto the rocks, turn you into hamburger, and wash you out to sea. So, tide pooling in a group (or at least as a pair) is highly recommended. At least one set of eyes can be keeping an eye on the ocean at all times and the tide poolers can take turns looking at the neat stuff.

So, in high school, the whole class (only about a dozen students) would carpool over the hill to the selected site and spend an afternoon and early evening identifying all the creatures they could find. At the end, we'd all change into dry clothes (*real* tide pooling involves getting wet), have a hot beverage from the thermos, and head back over the hill.  It was *lots* of fun and very team-building.

But here's the thing about tide pooling: if you don't have a really low low tide, there's not nearly so much to see.  So, you check the tide tables and hope to find low tides that start with "-". But there aren't that many "-" tides over the year.  And, tho the lowest-low tides at the Golden Gate are -2.0, we don't get one every year.  For example, we don't have one coming up this year.  We do, however, have three -1.9' tides coming up this year, so I'll be very happy with those.

But here's the thing about the really low low (and really high high) tides: they happen around the Summer and Winter Solstices. The coincide with the full or new moons.  And they happen at sunrise or sunset.

So what, you say. Well, here's what.  That means you get to go down to the seashore in the dead of winter, in the late afternoon, to wade in the freezing water while the sun is sinking into the west.  OR you get to get up LONG before the sun in summer so you can drive to the coast and hope to be able to see anything in the foggy, early morning twilight as you follow the tide out.  About the time the sun comes up and the fog starts to thin, the tide turns and starts crashing in at you, so you pretty much have to give up at that point.

Oddly, I can't seem to convince friends and family to join me in these activities in either season. *sigh*  So, yes, I still occasionally take my life in my hands and go out tide pooling in both summer and winter. 

I'll post again later in the week about a couple of specific trips, one in spring (not a great low tide, but a good trip) and one in summer (really good low tide and another great story, to boot!).